Section 9 Kingston Bridge to Hatton Cross

 

10 miles today but as ever, my phone told me I'd done 13.

Wow, what a great walk. After 6 months away from London due to a mixture of train strikes, shocking weather and illness I am back on it. 

Katy joined me today, which was fun. Ironically she only lives 25 miles away from this section but as she was staying in Bicester she had to do the long ridiculous journey in to Marylebone and out. And yes, ridiculous it was.  

We were sharing a carriage with Shewsbury Town football supporters and they were getting warmed/tanked up for a clash with Charlton. By 9am they had gone through cans of Porn Star Martinis, ciders, beers and a bottle of disaronno. They were all so happy/off their heads singing their Shrewsbury songs and said they did this all the time for away games. Luckily they all stayed in good drunken spirits. I have a feeling they would have passed out before the match at 3pm. 

Breakfast for 8 people. Life is different in Shrewsbury.

After getting down to Waterloo and then a train to Kingston, we were ready to get going about 11am.

We were both really impressed by the town of Kingston. It was buzzing, good shops and had a positive vibe.  Obviously if we ever find a few million quid Katy and I have decided we could happily live here. It was also full of history. I saw the coronation stone of the first English Kings last time, so this time we went into the church to have a nose. The first King of  England was crowned here in 925AD.  They had a lovely tapestry of him on the walls.  The aim is to get all the first 7 English Kings embroidered and put up by summer 2025 to celebrate Athelstan's 1100th anniversary. Athelstan looked great...the others do need a lot of work still.  I wonder if they will get the funding? 

https://www.allsaintskingston.co.uk/core/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/All-Saints-Kingston-Seven-Saxons-Embroidery-Project.pdf

We then went into the shopping centre and got lost finding the toilets. I especially liked the window and ceiling.

Right, we were off.  Over Kingston bridge and quickly into Bushy Park. A quick hello and goodbye to the Thames.  That's it, the South of the river part of the London Loop is now over. 

Bushy Park was expansive. Huge! It took us nearly 2 hours to get through. We never expected it to be so varied and beautiful and also fairly quiet.  The beginning was all flat  with lots of nesting skylarks in the grass.  You could hear them.  I thought I was back in the fields of North Oxfordshire for a moment. Then it moved into woodland gardens which morphed into a pheasantry and then the Water Gardens.  The woodland was magical, especially because the sun came out!  Bushy Park was a joy!

After a bit of hike through suburbia we stopped for  a pint. The pub we went to had seen better days but it had the heating on and the grotty seats were comfortable.

Grotty seats.  Not what I expected in Hampton!

Katy's feet on the pub radiator. Stylish!

We then joined the river crane.  As ever for me, walking along a river or canal is a highlight  for me. We walked along until we came across the Shot tower.  This place was once the site of the largest manufacturing base in Europe of gunpowder and lead shot for guns.  It was also one of the loudest  and most dangerous places in the UK as the gunpowder was prone to accidently exploding and could be heard over 50 miles away.  In 1823 the people who worked here had to wear felt shoes whilst working as the metal nails in shoes could cause explosions and all houses nearby were tents...as brick houses flying around would have been even more dangerous.  Molton lead was poured through the top of the tower which hit cold water at the bottom of the tower and formed pellets. 320 women and children worked here too.

https://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.php?aid=188&cid=2&ctid=2

Bank near the Shot Tower

The Shot Tower

Reading about this place being one of the loudest places in England made me laugh, as now we were nearing Heathrow and all we could hear were the planes. The roar was constant.  Getting used to this noise must be really difficult for the locals.  It was like a constant background stress. We could see the underbelly and wings of all the planes landing but they still seemed too far away to be impressive in any photos. The roar was something else though. Just as one vanished into the distant another one would roar overhead. But the river crane was beautiful.  Lots of birds, clean water and hardly anyone around. 

Below the flight path.

We then left Crane Park, crossed the Staines Road and entered into Donkey Wood. This wood was very well cared for with lots of board walks to keep us off the  swampy land below. By this point though I had put my phone away to save battery, so no more photos!  After another 20 mins of board walking next to the flight path, landing planes were only about 100 metres above us, we met the busy A30/Great South West Road.  

We then had to slowly trudge along this road for a mile or so, past a British Airways Hanger to the nearest Underground Station of Hatton Cross. Not much going on around here so we came back into central  London.  We changed trains in Earls Court, had fabulous pie, chips and pint here and then headed back to Marylebone.  We were knackered, I'm sure it had been far further than just 10 miles, but we had no blisters, neither of us had fallen over and it had been a really enjoyable walk.  London Loop, you always deliver.  I hope it isn't too long until I'm back doing part 10.

I'll remember this as the weirdly noisy walk:

• The  singing breakfast boozing Shrewsbury football supporters on the morning train.
• The insane roar of walking next to Heathrow
• The madness of the return train journey from Marylebone where the carriage next to us seemed to be full of singing Christians and incredibly happy and sweary Manchester City fans all having a fine old sing along together.  I thought it might end in a bit of antagonism but oh no, they were all in great spirits... I hope it stayed like this all the way to Birmingham.